STUART McGINLEY: Acts of kindness to round off a strange year

Published:12:00Sunday 18 December 2016

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One of the things I’ve really enjoyed doing at Spirit FM this year is Random Acts of Kindness, and we’ve just recorded more for Christmas.

One of them was at a garden centre near Chichester where we were loitering by the checkout and paying for people’s shopping. One lady just missed out on us paying for her shopping as she had to dash out to her car to grab her purse, so it was the next customer in the queue who benefitted from our random act. However, when she knew the other lady had just missed out, she then decided to pay for her shopping in the store too, so we really did pass on the random act of kindness!

We’ve also been out this week delivering presents to lucky children who sent a Letter to Santa with Spirit FM and it reminds me of how excited I used to get meeting Father Christmas when I was younger.

I used to try and stay up as late as I could to see him visit our house and listen for any noises, but Mum always told me he only visits when we are asleep, and she was right of course. The next morning the presents had arrived and the mince pie and brandy left for him the night before had always been consumed, although I reckon my Dad was responsible for that!

So it’s that time of year when we look back and reflect on the past 12 months and think about the things we’ve still not done and those new year resolutions. I didn’t have any this year but probably wanted to lose a bit of weight like everyone and save more money, sadly neither of those were achieved!

2016 has felt like a strange year with so many famous celebrities leaving us, I will always remember the news of David Bowie in early January and then Sir. Terry Wogan, little did we know this was the start of many more to come.

It’s also been a monumental year of change too with Brexit, Trump, turmoil in domestic politics and a new Prime Minister. Who knows what lies ahead in the next year?

Let’s not worry about that for now, there’s a lot of food to be eaten before then, so may I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!